The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 27, 1903, Page 9

113 William M stood in fhe m f trom which side. ke room, backgrc here af e who nity to vie Chase the room—if you ris Come jon’t mind & arett said he. The girl of 1904” said the great American painter, looking up at a pret- type of girl in an automobile coat 1g along a gray street. “Why, of course, she will be differeat from any other girl, from every other girl that ever lived. “Apd for that matter every voman is different from every other wuman and the) charm of womankind is that it is 80 “Suppose you were to paint a picture end say ‘This is the woman who is to come. How tired you would grow of that picture. And how earvestly you would wish that it might be changed. “You weary of one face. You weary of one style. You weary of one pose. You weary of one gown. “The great beauty of the girl of 1904 will be her variety. She will ss intelligence, of course.. And she will possess beauty, for all wom- en of the better classes are beautiful. She will e refinement, that. goes without saying. And she will be ine dividual. “There is a great deal said about the This-Girl or the That-Girl. There is the Gibson girl. And there is the Christy girl. There is the Gilbert girl. And there is the Henry Hutt girl. And they are good! “But these are ideals. They are types. Meritorious, beautiful, artistic and lovable. They are yet types. The artist himself does them in facetious mood. He does not regard them as decisive. He does not pretend to say that all women are, or will be, mold= ed on these lines. “Each beautiful woman of.1904¢ will be different from each other woman. She will show character in her faoe, individuality in her pose and a sharm decision in her manner. To an artist a mannerism becomes a peculiarity at once. And if he understands the art of portrait painting he at once endows this.sitter with this mannerism. “If I weré to paint the girl of 1904, . and if she were to walk into my stu dio and ask for a sitting, I would look at her closely 'and study her quietly. 1f she had a habit of turning her head as she talked you may be sure I would paint her in that pose. If she sat with her hand to’her face, in’apparently characteristic. pose, I would certainly, preserve this attitude, “That will be trait painting In tendency for a l¢ that, it has bee “Perhap and I(mkm: cisely like the the te hap: will b " ualit touch, which has been queathed to her by > recent a schools. A cuous “Mrs. Cla some years ago, and I ex+ hibited, w one f and most typical of American mode Her face was distinctively American. She was Gibson's first mod And was, thus, the original of the ideal Gibson girl. She was tall, der. “Her face was American. No doubt of it. And it was a type “You can tell an American face at once. It is d pt from any other face. Though, for the life of you, you can't tell why it is so. “Do you know your mother’'s hand- writing? Can you pick out the hand- writing of your dearest friends, at a glance? And without being told? Cer- tainly you can. But how? You do not know.. Neither does anybody eise. You cannot say, ‘It is the up stroke, nor the down stroke!" It is so be- cause it is “Thus with the American girl. She is American because she is so “The girl of 1904 will be different in a way from any other girl. Her face will show the American characteristics which are those of a sweet blending of other nations. All races meet hers and produce a type as different from the French' type as one color is dif- ferent from another. To a practiced eve it is impossible to make a mistake. “The girl of 1904 will be distinguish- able as to her dress. And In this con- nection it can be said that portrait painting is greatly affecting the dress- ing of women. “When a sitter comes to me I say to her, ‘I cannot paint you until I see your gowns.’ “She displays them or describes them. None will do. All will be outre in a short time. This gown has an ex- aggerated waist; this one is too tight in the skirt: this dr is trimmed with something in the very height of an ex- treme style, and upon. this. gown gleams a novel decoration which will be absolutely funny in five years’ time. “‘You must buy a gown,’ I say to her; ‘none of these will do at all" “Then I tell her what to buy. Some- times I tell her how much to pay for it. She goes away and purchases the gown. And in so doing she teaches herself a lesson. This is the lesson -of true greatmess in dress, the purchas- ing of a gown which will hold its ow no matter how the styles may change. “A woman cannot look lovely in a gown that is extreme.” And the boy who was born in Frank- Iin, Indiana, fifty-two years ago and who came to town, like William Shakespeare, with nothing except a clever brain, one suit of clothes and an individuality, pointed toward a rich painting in which the drapery set off the woman to the most exquisite per- fection. “The girl of 1304 will, perhaps, be able to dress better all the time, be- cause she is studying and learning. “But it will take four artists to paint her. I could paint the American girl of 1904, But the Italian girl of 1904 must be painted by an Italian artist. The French girl must be painted by French artist. The German gir! by a German artist. “She will not be satisfactory to her own people if one artist paint all. There is a certain poise to a French woman which it takes a French artist to catch; and a certain fresh originality to an American girl which nome but an Americangarjistgean fully master.” ious, high bred, sien- go!